


a bridge over troubled water

by milqo



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Joel is a good dad, i can't believe i wrote something again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 06:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15857925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milqo/pseuds/milqo
Summary: For someone around Ellie's age, having the person you love date someone else must be up there with things like getting infected, dying of hypothermia and all that sweet, sweet stuff.





	a bridge over troubled water

In the last two years they spent living on Tommy’s settlement, he’s had enough time to discover and memorize Ellie’s bad habits one by one - hoarding cups in her bedroom, forgetting to turn the lights off when she goes to sleep, throwing her muddy shoes on the recently cleaned floor - and, of course, slamming doors. How kind of her to remind him of that from time to time. He rubs the space between his eyebrows to ease what surely is going to grow into a headache.

“Ellie, I told you not to -”

Her footsteps are rushed as she climbs the stairs and he winces when the whole house reverberates with the sound of yet another door being closed violently. Joel sighs, setting down the hammer he’s using to fix a table - not without grumbling a little because damn, his back is killing him - and hurries until he's right in front of her bedroom door. His fingers trace the Savage Starlight stickers covering the places where it's most damaged.

“Ellie?”

No answer.

He knocks two, three times, until out of vulnerability or annoyance the door clicks open. She jumps into bed before he can get a glimpse of her face and buries her head in a pillow, a muffled scream following soon after.

_Ah. One of these days._

The bed groans with his weight as he awkwardly sits on the soft mattress. “What’s wrong?” She mumbles something unintelligible as he rubs her upper back as if to coax the words out of her. “I can’t hear you, kiddo.”

Ellie finally faces him and makes a show out of throwing the pillow on the other side of the room. “Dina, it’s Dina.”

She sniffles and _oh no_ is the first thing that comes to his mind. These two took to each other like a duck to water ever since they started living in the settlement, one rarely being seen without the other. Joel knows about her crush on that girl since day one and if Ellie’s... acting like that, well, something must be wrong. 

“She’s dating someone else. I thought it was some kind of sick joke but - they were holding hands and -”

She chokes on her words and he doesn't even think before pulling her close to him. "It's okay, babygirl. You're okay," he puts his chin on her head and Ellie looks like she’s trying to bury herself on his shirt. “Who’s the lucky guy? Girl?"

“J-Jesse.”

He manages to stop himself from scoffing at the mere mention of Jesse. He really doesn’t like the boy and his leadership skills, if they can even be called that. Doesn't help Maria is always covering his ass, probably out of spite for all the mess Joel caused all those years ago. Or so he likes to think.

“Well, for beginners," he mumbles, "I like you more, kiddo.”

He keeps his hold firm, rocking her back and forth until her sobs quiet down. Cruel as it is, part of him feels content she isn't crying because something terrible happened. Though he believes for someone around Ellie's age, having the person you love date someone else must be up there with things like getting infected, dying of hypothermia and all that sweet, sweet stuff.

Between taking care of Tommy when they were younger and becoming a father earlier than most, Joel didn’t have much time to be a teenager. And that was when the world was still... well, not too much of the complete shithole it is now. He's strangely relieved Ellie is here, like this, on his arms, feeling something so very fitting for the sixteen years old girl she is. That she almost didn’t get the chance to be. Joel quickly brushes the thought away to the back of his mind where it belongs.

"Let's wash your face. You look like hell."

He’s got no idea where that came from and he realizes too late that maybe that wasn't the right thing to say. She gets up from the bed when he tugs her hand anyway, so it's good. Probably.

“Shut up, Joel,” she jabs back at him with barely any bite to it. “This is worse than the fucking apocalypse.”

She follows behind him with half-assed steps, her body dangling from left to right in a poor imitation of a ragdoll. Joel keeps up with his pace and Ellie trips on her feet almost as many times as she does when she’s around Dina. When they reach their decently sized bathroom he lets go of her hands and turns on the sink, debating on whether to splash the water on her face or to act like the almost fifty years old man he is, but ultimately ends up choosing the least delicate option, earning a complaint from Ellie.

“Here,” he hands her a towel and he’s never been so happy to see a small frown forming on her forehead. “Dry your face.”

He frees her hair from the ponytail holding it up, brushing the strands with his hands and frowning when it gets caught on knots. He collects all of her hair in one hand, twisting it on the top of her head and making a bun he hopes will last more than twenty seconds.

He's proud when it does.

Ellie looks at him from the mirror as if to ask _Well? What now?_ and this time he leads her to the living room, where she's quick to plop on the couch like she's melting into it. A little too dramatic in his opinion. Joel makes his way to the kitchen and returns with a glass of water he waves in front of her until she gives in and downs it in one gulp, if only to make Joel stop being _weird_.

“Better?”

“A little.”

The peace lasts all of four seconds before her face scrunches in a way he’s familiar with. "Listen,” he says as soon as he sees her mouth opening and ready to go into a hour-long rant, grabbing the guitar leaning on the wall separating the living room and the kitchen. He glares at her muddied shoes leaving stains on the fabric of their couch until she realizes what he's looking so aggravated by.

"Give me a fucking break, Joel," she groans, but complies with him and slips off her shoes, setting them carefully on the floor. She purses her lips, raising her eyebrow at him. “Also. Whatever you're think of, it won't work."

He thinks of Sarah's mother, eighteen and rosy cheeked when he sang to her. “It worked before."

“I don’t believe it.”

"I’ll prove you wrong, kiddo."

A smile flickers across her face for a split second and it’s like his heart doubles its size inside his chest. They spend the rest of the afternoon looking through music sheets; he makes up for Ellie's clumsiness with the patience of a saint, guiding her hands to the right notes, singing in her place when her voice cracks.

Soon enough day melts into night. They're making dinner when Dina calls from outside and Joel exclaims several _calm down's_ and _wait a fucking second's_ before opening the door.

“Dina. Ellie’s sleeping.”

She wasn’t, in fact, sleeping. But Joel believes in lying for a greater good. Dina lets out a soft _oh_ , her shoes making circles in the dirt, looking down in an uncharacteristic display of bashfulness. If it were any other day she would barge in the house anyway, wake her up in such a rowdy manner they’d end up bickering for what felt like forever until it turned into hushed sounds of conversation. Judging from the strange expression on Dina’s face, whatever happened between them today didn’t put her into a good mood either.

"Take care, kiddo," he says, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly. "You can see her tomorrow."

"Yeah."

She goes on a defeated walk towards her house and he feels a bit upset about the way her shoulders slump - maybe she’s grown on him, after all. That girl grows on everyone over time. Like weeds.

When he comes back Ellie's rubbing the inside of her wrists on her eyes, the knife she's using to slice vegetables close enough to her face to almost cause him a heart attack. He takes it from her before it can cause any harm. "I'll finish this. You go and rest."

"Thanks, Joel," she tugs on his shirt and smiles when he covers her hands with his own. "I mean it."

"Anytime."

She gives him a side hug for a whole minute while he takes on her task, then flops on the couch again. To Joel, she looks about the size of a pea. When he looks at her again she’s dozing off, tear stains dry on her cheeks. He decides to not wake her for dinner; he’ll make sure to make a hearty breakfast the next morning to compensate. Joel climbs the stairs, rummages for the best blanket he can find and hopes she won’t wake up when he covers her with it.

“I got you," he whispers softly, tucking her in and leaning down to press a kiss on her forehead. "I got you.”

**Author's Note:**

> ohh boy i have a few things to say about this
> 
> 1\. this story was inspired by my brother. thank u, trashcan  
> 2\. i like to believe joel's actions speak louder than his words. sometimes he's just... awkward, he says the wrong things. ellie tries to not dwell too much on it. he means well.  
> 3\. idk if dina was already dating jesse when she met ellie or if they got into a relationship later but okay  
> 4\. i wrote this in a different tense & did my best with the english fdkfdkjsfh at some point i almost gave up. i'm glad i didn't. it was a great exercise and i even ended up writing more than i intended to!
> 
> thank you for reading <3 i hope you enjoy this!


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